.
Research
Working Papers- ''Gasoline Taxes and Fuel Economy: A Preference Heterogeneity Approach,'' October 2011 [Download paper]
Abstract: This paper estimates an equilibrium model for the U.S. car market to measure the value of two policies aimed at reducing gasoline consumption. The first one is the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard, and the second one is gasoline taxes. We use a structural model that allows for flexible substitution patterns across car models, measures preferences on cost per mile driven, accounts for the problem of endogeneity of prices, and jointly solves for the manufacturers' optimal responses. The data used include income and miles driven. Counterfactual results show that the welfare loss gross of externality costs from tightening the standard by 27 percent is about two times the cost of increasing net gasoline prices in order to achieve the same reduction in gasoline consumption among new passenger cars. When accounting for externalities, the two policies may be welfare increasing.
- ''Intermittency and the Value of Renewable Energy,'' (with Gautam Gowrisankaran and Stanley
Reynolds), NBER Working Paper No. 17086, August 2011 [Download paper]
Abstract: This paper develops an empirical approach to estimate the equilibrium value of intermittent renewable energy. We model a system operator who optimizes the amount of generation capacity, operating reserves, and demand curtailment potentially in the presence of large-scale solar capacity. We use generator characteristics, solar output, demand and weather forecast data to estimate parameters for southeastern Arizona. Equilibrium costs of a 20 percent mandate are $142.2 per MWh of solar generation; unforecastable intermittency accounts for $10.3 of this. If the social cost of carbon were $21/ton this mandate would be welfare neutral if solar capacity costs dropped from $5/W to $1.42/W.
- ''Dynamics in the Evaluation of Renewable Energy''
, March 2012
For a preliminary version of the paper, please send me an e-mail. - ''Bayesian Inference for Conditional Average Treatment Effects from a Job Training Program,'' February 2010
For a preliminary version of the paper, please send me an e-mail.
Copyright © 2008 M. Samano